Super Smash Bros. Brawl

It's a bad game, and I acknowledge that, but nostalgia is an incredibly powerful thing.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a very divisive game. Many love it for its cast of characters, stages, mechanics, and content. However, many credit this as the worst Smash game in the series due to it being unbalanced, slow, and just not competitively viable compared to Super Smash Bros. Melee.

I fall in the middle area with this game.

However, it is a very important game to me and I credit it as one of many games to kickstart my love for gaming and the art of it. It's very meaningful to me.

Firstly, the gameplay is slow and a bit weird. I do prefer the fast-paced action the other games have, but the game is still fun to play. Especially Meta Knight as he the best character in the game and the most fun because of it.

The music is powerful and triumphant with an extremely beautiful main theme that is just the theme song of my childhood. Watching the intro for the first time in almost 10 years brought a tear to my eye.

The cast of characters is pretty solid too. Characters from Melee being Dr. Mario, Young Link, Pichu, Mewtwo, and Roy, were cut from the cast which is both good and bad. Brawl cut the filler and replaced it with more fitting characters. (However, I'd argue that Mewtwo should have been brought over). The new characters were Zero Suit Samus who would be part of Samus as a two-in-one, Diddy Kong, Pit, Meta Knight, Pokemon Trainer (Charizard, Squirtle, and Ivysaur), Ike, King Dedede, Wolf, Lucario, Wario, Toon Link, R.O.B., Olimar, and Lucas. AND the first-ever third-party characters ever added in Smash with Snake and Sonic. 39 Characters is pretty impressive.

This also saw the debut of new stages, Assist Trophies, and the Smash Ball which allowed you to unleash a powerful special move.

We can't talk about Brawl without mentioning The Subspace Emissary, the story mode of this game. The story may not make sense, but the cutscenes are beautiful and it's an absolute masterpiece of a mode.

There are many issues though. The visuals are pretty lackluster as Nintendo wanted to make the game darker and more realistic which doesn't work for Smash, the gameplay is slow and the addition of tripping is very stupid. Classic Mode and other modes have been nerfed which are a little disappointing, and it just doesn't have any reason for competitive Smash players to pick up as it is just not viable and the fact that the roster is unbalanced, as Meta Knight rules the game.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is very meaningful to my childhood. It introduced so many franchises to me such as Kirby, Star Fox, Metroid, and Zelda, and I'd probably not be as into video games without it. Sure, the game isn't perfect and it's nowhere near as good as Melee, Wii U/3DS, and Ultimate, (It's better than 64 to me). But it will always hold a special place in my young gaming childhood

Thanks, Smash Brawl, Nintendo, and Masahiro Sakurai.

Introduction

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is a fighting game which celebrates Nintendo's vast amount of franchises and rich history. Like most Nintendo games, it's easy to learn but difficult to master. There's a bit of luck involved, but there's plenty of scope for skill and strategy. The standard matches consist of 2 to 4 players battling in an arena; a recipe for frantic battles.

Super Smash Bros. differs from other fighting games. Although there's many modes/options, the default mechanic is a damage percentage rather than a health bar. The percentage can increase much further than 100%, so it's somewhat confusing to players unfamiliar with the system. The percentage corresponds to the distance the characters will fly when struck. A damage of around 100% roughly means you should be able to launch them, but the more skilful players (or heavier characters) may be able to put up more of a fight (up to around 300%, although that's a rarity). When players are launched off the screen and KO-d, they lose a point, and the player that launched them receives a point.

The standard matches are based on Time. At the end of the match, the number of total points determined the winner. There are plenty of other options to tinker with though. You can play for a certain amount of lives (stock match) or Coin matches (hitting players produces coins which can be collected), or Stamina where you do have a set amount of health points.
Controls

You can use the Wii Classic Controller, the Gamecube Controller; the Wii Mote flipped side-ways and the general purpose Wiimote and nunchuck combo. I opted for the latter scheme.

The A button performs basic attacks, combined with any direction produces different directional attacks. Up performs a jump which can be used for platforming, dodging, or to use aerial attacks. The B button combined with any direction or neutral position performs four different special attacks. You can shield by holding the Z button, or dodge by pressing a direction while holding the shield button. A+B performs a grab which is great for grabbing shielded opponents. Smash attacks can be performed by simultaneously pressing a direction and the A button which can be held to charge. Smash Attacks deal a lot of damage, and are the main technique for launching players with the aim of achieving a knockout.
Characters

The 39 character roster (25 available at the start) highlights Nintendo's vast amount of intellectual property with characters from a vast amount of games. Well, this time there are some guests like Snake from Metal Gear, and Sonic The Hedgehog.

New characters include Wario, Pit, Toon Link, ROB the robot and Meta Knight. However, several characters from Super Smash Bros. Melee are absent such as Roy (Fire Emblem), Dr. Mario, Mewtwo, Pichu, and Young Link.

The majority of them play similar enough that you can swap between them without taking much time to adapt, but yet are different enough to be distinct and allow their personality to shine through.

Each character has a few colour modifications so you can choose the same character as another player; albeit an obscure-looking version.
Stages

There's plenty of stages which are also based on various franchises, which even come with the aesthetics of the original game. There's plenty of returning classics alongside some new ones, and there's a variety of shapes and sizes.

There's plenty of dynamic elements to the stages, with many of them transforming as you play. This means you need to learn the stages so you know what to look out for to avoid danger. Stages can also have some interesting mechanics.

The dynamic elements can cause a lot of frustration, especially to new players, because the changing environments can mean you fall to your death a bit too easy.
Items

There is a huge amount of items available and a wide variety of types. There's weapons like baseball bats and guns, recovery/defensive items like food, Maxim Tomato, or Starman (makes you invincible for a limited time), explosives like bob-ombs or blast box, assist items like Pokéballs which unleashes a Pokémon companion, and many more. You will need to learn what each item does and understand the best way to use it/avoid it.

There is a special item called the Smash Ball. This floats and bobbles around until enough damage has been dealt to it. The player who deals the final hit gets the ability to perform their unique Final Smash; which should end with at least one KO.
Modes

Smash mode allows you to set up fairly standard games. You have a choice of victory condition, Time, Coin, Stock and can choose which items are enabled, as well as the overall frequency of them. Special Smash is like Smash, but has extra options. Stamina, Size, Head, Body, Status, Gravity, Speed, leading to potentially crazier games.

Events mode has specific pre-set battles sometimes with different victory conditions such as destroying destructible parts of the arena.

Classic mode is a series of rounds leading up to the battle with Master Hand.

Target Blast sees you navigating a course whilst locating and smashing targets in the quickest time. There are three stages which is a small amount, but it will take you a long time if you want to set a score with each of the characters!

Multi-Man Smash is set on a Final Destination-style map where you battle against many robot characters. A single smash is usually enough to defeat them, but it can be very challenging to survive depending on the game mode you choose. 10-Man Smash is about finishing the game quickly, whereas 100-Man Smash can be quite challenging to survive. 3-Minute Smash can feel similar, but your main aim is to last a set length of time.

Home-Run Contest is the same as always; apply as much damage as you can to the sandbag, pick up the bat and perform a smash attack to launch.

Training allows you to experiment with different moves and learn how much damage each attack does.

The Subspace Emissary is a new adventure mode featuring loads of cut-scenes. The levels are often side-scrolling and can have maze structures. Since it takes several hours to complete, you can save after each level. The final level is a massive maze which is a bit tedious to get through. Playing this mode unlocks some of the characters and is a great opportunity to acquire more trophies and stickers.
Trophies

In the Trophies section, you view your Trophy collection or can acquire new ones by playing a mini-game. There are hundreds of trophies to collect; basically every single character and item from Nintendo has a trophy. These trophies come accompanied with a description which gives some history of the character or item.
Conclusion

Super Smash Bros. Brawl is an amazing game. The series is well-received and this version is the most complete package compared to the previous games. There's so many characters to use, and so many options to customise to cater for your preferences. It's a great game for all skill levels, being yet another Nintendo game where it's easy to learn but difficult to master. It's great for fans of fighting games, and brilliant for Nintendo fans; it was a must-own game for Wii owners.

I can't count the hours I've played this game with my friends in college, this was our go to party game when we had nothing else to play during my Sophomore and Junior year in college. My Freshman year my friends didn't have a Wii so we played Melee mostly which is my favorite Smash game and the one I was most used to. But my friends claimed this was better and we'd play it frequently. Its basically an expansion of the previous smash with more characters, more maps, and more challenges. The main thing is the controls and characters movement is different in this. On top of that some of the characters in the previous games felt nerfed, like Marth. I guess the balance in this game is decent where most characters feel fair. I can't really complain it is a pretty decent party game that is balanced but it just doesn't feel the same as Melee. If you prefer the feel of the controls in this and weight of the characters then this will be the better of the Smash games but if you don't then Melee will be the better game for you.

Really only marred by its floatiness, though I was not sad to see it or the tripping go, Brawl is easily the most feature complete game, with the various twists on arcade mode and boss rush that you would expect in any fighter, plus the missions and trophies, and a damn good single player mode whose story is effectively, silently, told while still projecting the kid giddiness of a crossover. Even as a game, the side-scrolling aesthetic works fine but for some camera misgivings, and even the repetitive points only highlight the understated scale of the suite. Throw in the usual assortment of dozens of characters and you have the game that keeps on giving.

The first Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer released when I was nine and it made a definite impression on me. The inclusion of Meta Knight, Pit, and Wario were all things I had wanted after seeing their trophies in my (at the time) favorite game, Super Smash Bros. Melee [大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズDX]. The stinger reveal of Solid Snake blew me away and the grandiose feel of the game made my grade school self far more excited than any kid should be about any game. The Smash Bros. Dojo was the first thing I visited in the morning and I even signed up on message boards to speculate on what the roster could be. Brawl even marked the first time I went on a media blackout after the game was released in Japan two months before it saw release in the States.

March 9th 2008. My brother and I drove to pick up our copy at midnight and we played it until 6 in the morning. By March 11th, I had beaten Subspace Emissary, unlocked all the characters, and racked up over 200 kills with Ike. I was enjoying the game but there were some doubts lingering at the back of my head. I was disappointed by the absence of a playable Ridley, sure, but there were deeper issues. The slow pace of the game, the tripping, the fact that Subspace was a crushing disappointment. For a short time, I didn't know if Brawl was just a victim of hype or if Brawl actually had issues.

I continued to play Brawl daily, just as I did with Melee, but items were kept on and my brother's friends who played Melee competitively never really moved on to Brawl. Regardless, I put in hundreds of hours into the game between matches with my friends, my brother, and the single-player. Due to a series of events that resulted in me buying a 2nd Wii, I was able to go back to Brawl with a fresh file, allowing me to look at Brawl with a fresh set of eyes. And in doing so, I found a lot to like about it. And a lot to dislike like about it as well.

Brawl's faults have been well-covered. Tripping is an abominable miscalcuation on the dev team's part as it disrupts the flow of the matches and adds an element of randomness that practically killed the game's competitive life. The floatiness of the physics make it harder to get KOs and can drag a match out for what feels like forever. Subspace Emissary is a poorly designed Kirby game with a washed-out color pallet and feels like a waste of manpower and disc space. Even the trophy selection is lackluster compared to Melee's, promoting the much-loathed Donkey Kong Barrel Blast without even a mention of more obscure titles in Nintendo's history, something Melee's trophy section excelled in.

The most vocal critics of Brawl often talk about the tripping and the floatiness and the game's poor balance all of which ruined the game's competitive viability. And their complaints are valid and true. What is often overshadowed though is how this game's balance is broken even at a casual level. I'm not a great Smash player, you'll never see me at EVO, but I can get KOs if nothing else. With the exception of the heavy hitters like Ike or Ganondorf, it is extraordinarily difficult to KO in Brawl. Items become a must just because they speed up the pace of matches. Brawl wasn't made with competitive players in mind but I doubt Melee was either. However, Melee at least seems like it was made to be played without items, the game's speed is indicative of that. Brawl just seems like it was made for friends of the people who actually bought Brawl. The people who will play it a handful of times and never again.

That's not to say that there isn't a lot to like about the game. The core gameplay of Smash Brothers is addicting and stellar. And on the surface, Brawl is a ton of fun. It's when you invest as much time in it as I (and many others) have that you begin to see problems arise. If Sakurai was trying to make the ultimate casual fighting game, he succeeded. The character roster is large, varied, and a wonderful celebration of Nintendo history, the stages look great and most of them are fun in their own way, and the soundtrack is one of the greatest "Best Of" soundtracks of all time and that's without mentioning the many top-notch arrangements.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl makes a lot missteps but I still managed to mine an embarrassing amount of time out of the game. In the end, the game both was and wasn't a victim of hype. Brawl has notable issues, many of which would be addressed in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS / Wii U [大乱闘スマッシュブラザーズ for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U] but the core of Smash Bros is so well thought out and Sakurai and his team are so skilled at what they do that it is legitimately difficult to say that Brawl is a bad game or even an average one. Melee was a tough act to follow and even if Brawl isn't moving any mountains, it is still a great way to kick back and kill some time with friends.